


I'm your twinkling star in this dark and lonely night

by orphan_account



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-30
Updated: 2010-09-30
Packaged: 2017-10-12 07:56:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/122648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Johnny can't sleep. Pure crack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm your twinkling star in this dark and lonely night

The Emergency before this particular free skate was the light bulb.

There was always something. He'd been so sure he'd thought of everything this time - the smell, the touch, the sight, hell, he'd even brought his own bedlinen, so that sleeping would taste good. There was soothing music playing in the background. Gaga, Aguilera. He'd even put some Adam Lambert into the mix, because, well. Gaga loved him. Johnny still thought if anyone was from Planet Fierce, it was him, not some wannabe rockstar, but he was willing to let it go just this once.

But - the _light bulb_. It flickered.

This was the moment he decided to steal Tanith's, who, as all probability measures suggested, had a working lightbulb. That plan's executions went something like this:

The first time he crept towards her room to commit the grand theft light bulb, he knew she was out of her room. She'd left about half an hour ago.

The _moment_ his hand lingered over her door handle, however, it seemed like she could _feel_ it. His cell rang, startling him into a yelp. It was Tanith, wondering if he wanted some of the special hand lotion she was getting for herself at the drug store.

His next attempt happened about twenty minutes later, after his guilty conscience had subdued enough to let him get on with it. But, when he was two steps from her door, she suddenly came barelling through their suit entrance, loudly wondering if she'd forgotten her favorite earmuffs in her room, because she could have sworn she'd taken them over to Ben's, but he didn't have them. Had Johnny seen them?

Johnny hadn't. He slinked back to his room, glaring at the light bulb, the bane of his existence.

When he heard the door fall shut, he promptly attacked again, this time with all his conviction that this was The Right Thing To Do, because he was in need, and also, he had a free skate to win tomorrow and he couldn't possibly sleep well knowing his light bulb wasn't working the way it _should_. Tanith would understand.

What he hadn't considered that the door had not actually been the exit door, but the door to Tanith's bathroom, and the moment he stepped into her room, she stepped out of said bathroom, and stared at him like he was crazycakes.

"I'll just be going..." he muttered, turning on his heel. (God, he wished he had heels. Maybe she'd lend him some?)

Tanith's expression didn't change into a less judgemental one when she asked, "What on earth is going on? Why are you behaving like a crazy person?"

Sometimes, Johnny wished Tanith was a little more sensitive and a little less to the point. "I'm having a light bulb crisis," he said, because two could play that game.

Tanith glanced at her cell phone on her nighttable, then looked at him speculatively. "Do I need to call an ambulance?"

Johnny blinked.

"You're able to walk," Tanith then concluded. "So probably not."

"Ohmigod," Johnny cried, pointing his finger at her. "I hate you." Then he stomped out, his tragic problem still unsolved.

 

The thing was, he _couldn't_ switch it with any of the light bulbs in the rest of the suite, because even though he might not _use_ them, he'd still _know_. And that was just as bad as the actual flickering light.

This was the reason he went out into the hallway, wandering the empty pathways of the world in search of one he could steal that wouldn't also rob him of his well-deserved sleep this night. On his way, he met a few other athletes, 'Go Team USA', and all that crap, like he cared, and also, okay, so the hall wasn't exactly empty, and his sleep wouldn't be peaceful, whether he found the damn thing or not, but it was the _principle_ of the matter.

This had to be resolved.

As he so wandered the Olympic apartment complex, it came to him that there was one Prince Charming who had once promised him to soothe all his woes, whatever they might be, which was brilliant.

And so Johnny quickly turned (still no heels), and marched towards the floor that housed the Switzerland people. They didn't even look at him funny, despite his purple pyjamas with the rhinoceroses (rhinoceri?) and his bunny slippers, which might have been because a) they were particularly accepting people, which he assumed was true either way, or b) because they were used to his daily visits after the past week - more likely, but depressing, because his spectacularity (spectacularness?) should be appreciated _always_.

He didn't knock, because he loved catching Stéphane in compromising situations he could tease him about for _years_ to come; sadly, Stéphane was in no such position this evening. He was lying on his bed, on his side, with a book open next to him, reading quietly.

"You're so boring," Johnny commented when Stéphane looked at him.

Stéphane's lips curled up. "You brought new night clothes for every single night here, didn't you?"

Johnny smiled back appreciatively. "I knew there was a reason I liked you." Then he let himself fall onto the bed next to Stéphane, barely missing the book that Stéphane pulled from underneath him at the last second. Johnny sighed loudly.

Stéphane rubbed his back. "Yeah," he muttered. "I miss sex, too."

Johnny snorted. "I wish I could be thinking about sex! I won't sleep a wink tonight if you don't help me!"

"What? What's wrong?"

"My light bulb's wrong!"

Stéphane, to his credit, didn't even blink. "What's wrong with it, exactly?"

"It keeps flickering! I can't sleep like this. It's driving me crazy. I tried stealing Tanith's, but she's like a watchdog when it comes to me entering her room. I bet she has it bugged. Or a laser field. Maybe she has a laser field in front of her room, I think I need to use my special deodorant to find the beams of light and do a Mission Impossible montage." He sat up a little, glancing at Stéphane. "You can provide background music."

Stéphane grinned. "We can roleplay after the competitions is over, if you want."

"Not. The. Point." Johnny thumped his arm. "Be the useful guy you made yourself out to be back when I decided to accept your proposal, and find me a working light bulb."

Stéphane looked around his room, then his gaze fell back on Johnny. "You do realize that if it's not a contact problem, it's almost certainly the wires, in which case a new light bulb will do you no good?"

"How do you know this stuff?" Johnny breathed, before he realized what that actually meant and groaned, falling back onto the bed. "My life is _over_."

Stéphane slipped his hand under Johnny's shirt. "Maybe I can make you feel better...?"

For a moment, he thought Johnny'd give in, but then, Johnny twisted and glared. "This is not the time for this sort of debauchery," he said sharply. "Didn't you hear? Without sleep tonight, I will look like the princess who slept on the _pea_ all night, and my hair will be horrible!"

Stéphane accepted the change of position gracefully by leaning down and stopping the rest of the rant with a kiss.

Johnny returned the kiss for a few seconds, before he pushed at Stéphane's shoulder and glared harder. "First off, Galina will _kill_ us, and second of all. Light. Bulb." Then his expression changed. "I could stay here tonight?" he asked hopefully. "Your bed is nice."

Stéphane stared at him for about five seconds. Then he pushed Johnny off the bed so that he fell on the floor with a thump.

"Hey!" Johnny protested.

Stéphane looked down at him over the edge of his bed. "I need my beauty sleep. You steal the blankets, and you complain about _everything_. I'll see you tomorrow after the free skate."

"But - but - but!" Johnny spluttered.

"If it makes you feel better, you can take my light bulb. Or, you know. You can just _unscrew_ yours and use the remaining lights?"

Johnny opened his mouth. Closed it again. Then he scrambled to his feet and stalked out of the room.

"Great," Stéphane said to his ceiling. "Now he's going to be cranky all week."

 

Two minutes later, Johnny came back inside, went into his bathroom, came back out holding a light bulb.

"Don't talk to me," he said and walked right back out.

 

It didn't help, so in the end, he went and called a real man (well, no, actually, he went to call one of the ice dancers, but then Meryl turned out to have a toolkit with her, god knew what for, and she was the one who in the end fixed his lighting problem with what seemed to be a magic screwdriver).

"If I was straight, I'd totally date you," Johnny said with love in his eyes as she dusted off and turned on the light, unflickering.

"Me, too," Meryl told him, petting his arm, and left.

 

Johnny slept soundly that night.

Stéphane didn't get any sex all week.

The free skate went well, for a change.

 

~~~


End file.
